The part about sheriffs scares me as someone not well-versed in American affairs because I read previously that some sheriffs don't believe that federal laws should apply to them and that could be good, I guess? But could also be really bad.
Oh this has nothing to do with taxpayer funds, they’d spend the money on tax cuts for themselves, if they could. This is about denying Biden from getting another win.
I don't see the whataboutism here. It's andalsoism, which we could engage in endlessly with the Republicans, who have become the party of taking things away from other people.
Being around other kids helps kids learn social skills.
Most of us do that in school. Homeschooled kids can lack that depending on how the parent socializes their kids. Some homeschooling parents realize that they have to socialize their kids. Those parents put their kids in sports or scouts or other places where the kid can socialize. Other parents are oblivious that social skills are learned, then you can end up with some really awkward people out there.
As someone who was homeschooled and now holds a master’s degree, I will proudly own the ‘weirdo’ title and make no claims to normalcy. And I suspect most of my 7 siblings would do the same.
But saying we’re all ‘likely retarded’ is a bit peculiar to me. Most homeschoolers I’ve met (which I suspect is more than most folks, being from inside the community) come from high-functioning or highly-religious families, with very few notably ‘retarded’. How many homeschool kids have you actually known?
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I’m very against homeschooling. It breeds religious zealotry, stunts communal empathy, an open mind, and critical thinking skills.
All this talk about grooming, and that’s what I see homeschooling as (though not really in the sexual sense).
Eh… I see where you’re coming from, and I’m generally against homeschooling as well. For various reasons, I wish I hadn’t been and wouldn’t do so for my child.
That said, I’m inclined to disagree. It only promotes what the parents put into it - which, yes, often is a lot of religion, but it isn’t intrinsic to the practice. The religious component I suspect is where you get the stunting of open-mindedness and critical thinking ideas, but fwiw I and several of my siblings have since left the faith for atheism, and even those who still participate in religion are mostly rather progressive. I do fully recognize that I and my siblings are probably the exception in this regard, so in those aspects I think your opinion generally represents the actual outcomes of homeschooling as it exists in the US, and probably is not that unpopular outside of homeschooling circles - but I would reiterate that I don’t think it’s intrinsic to homeschooling; rather, I think it’s a result of who in the US tends to choose to homeschool.
As for the idea that it stunts communal empathy, I’m a little bit baffled. I work in a mental hospital, one of my sisters has spent a year volunteering at orphanages in Ghana, one of my cousins (who was also homeschooled) runs a rural mission hospital in Bangladesh, etc… My observation is that most homeschooling families are rather pro-social and fully embrace the concepts of community and communal support of one another (even if they have eaten the socialism-is-bad propaganda; their rationale then is just that charity should come from the community itself rather than being subject to government mandate and bureaucratic inefficiency), so I’m curious what gives you that idea.
not the person you replied to, but someone with similar opinions: of your 3 examples, only you are still working in the community you presumably grew up in and live in. homeschooling can make it difficult to feel tied to your local community; often, they are perceived as “other” and feel themselves separate, at least the ones I’ve met. you may all feel driven to work for “communal good”, but it seems like it’s often done as an outsider to the community. there’s no “communal empathy” because you(generally, the home schooled) aren’t part of the community.
I have awful social anxiety - when I was little it was just called “painfully shy” - and my mother considered home schooling as an alternative. my grandmother was an elementary school teacher in the local public school system, and said the most valuable thing they taught in school was how to navigate socially. everything else can be taught outside school, but it’s extremely difficult to give kids the opportunity to learn societal norms and how to deal with peer groups when they aren’t interacting with people outside their small group on a daily basis. I’m honestly not sure how well I’d function in society as an adult if my mother hadn’t listened to my grandmother. I learned a lot of my social skills at school, more than I could in church or clubs where the peers were fewer and our similarities greater.
Appreciate the reply. Perhaps my view of homeschooling is all hyper-religious families who tend to be the evangelical type, as a whole I see that population of people as lacking empathy, critical thinking skills, etc.
I just don’t see the need for homeschooling as it just perpetuates this evangelical religious fervor. Besides, we live in a society of different backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities. Schools are a good place to meet people who are different than you.
I get you’re going for the literal “retarded”, like the “developmentally delayed” kind… but man that was a bold choice to use the word literally in the same sentence as calling them weirdos lol
Not every homeschooled child is abused, but when I worked for CPS, a HELL of a lot of abusive families used it as a means to keep their kids away from those pesky mandatory reporters.
Absolutely, not only for child welfare, but for basic education standards. I’ve seen homeschool be everything from structured classes for 8 hours, to sit here and read the Bible for 8 hours.
For sure, socialization is super important, and you need to be very intentional about it with homeschooling. Personally, I grew up with both a very tight-knit group of friends from other homeschooling families (and actually a few that weren’t homeschooled). I also went to what’s called a “co-op” for a time, which is basically like a school run by a bunch of parents that take turns teaching classes and such. I also did attend a normal school until I was 9, which I’m sure affected my early development of social skills. And on top of all that, I went to university and worked a number of very social jobs, all of which helped a lot.
But yeah, homeschooling is certainly not without its own issues and personally I’m not planning on homeschooling my own son, which I’m sure tells you plenty.
Waiting for Trump to be all “When we retake what’s rightfully ours, I’ll make sure those who were wrongly imprisoned by Crooked Joe Biden are exonerated as the patriots they are!”
He’ll do it, but he’ll charge them a few mill to get a pardon, then they’ll start a pateron/GoFundMe/Kickstarter to fleece their rubes for more money, and then they’ll split the cash.
If Trump was literate, he could write a masterclass on getting fucking morons to send you money.
Wasn't even there on January 6th. I point this out not because he was over-sentenced, but because everyone else was under-sentenced. For one separate case the judge said "I don't think I'll hand down a sentence 15 years below guidelines ever again in my career." Yeah. You shouldn't have done it this time either.
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